Clergy ‘do not support’ inclusive St. Patrick’s Parade and will not allow church to be used to process applications

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Despite recent news that the LGBTQ+ community has been invited to march in Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s Parade after decades of isolation, Advance/SILive.com has learned that some community clergy may be creating new obstacles.

The annual parade entry process is traditionally held at Blessed Sacrament RC Church, which is located along the parade route on Forest Avenue in West Brighton. Typically, organizations leave applications within the church.

But that won’t happen this year, Bishop Peter Byrne said.

“I don’t support the parade, so there will be no objects here. Sorry, but I have no further comment,” he told Advance/SILive.com.

The new leadership of the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee did not respond to requests for comment on Bishop Byrne’s announcement or where registration for the 2025 parade, usually held in February, will take place.

Staten Island’s first inclusive St. Patrick’s Parade

Ed Patterson, the new parade committee chairman, said at a Nov. 13 news conference that the decision to lift the march ban was made “pretty simply” because “it was just time.”

“The Pride Center has long maintained that they simply want to be treated like any other marching contingent in the parade. The Parade Committee is charged with ensuring that the fullness of the Parade remains true to St. Patrick and the history, culture, traditions and faith of the Irish people. The Pride Center said they are committed to assisting the parade committee and remain committed to that commitment,” he said at the event.

On March 2, 2025, members of the Staten Island Pride Center and other LGBTQ+ groups will march under their banners along with dozens of community organizations, officially ending the exclusionary ban at Staten Island’s largest annual public event.

The Staten Island parade was believed to be the last in the world to ban LGBTQ+ groups, after similar parades in Manhattan and Boston ended the practice of exclusion.

The parade committee’s “change in thinking” was made possible by new leadership, which took over on Oct. 30 following the retirements and resignations of former leaders who had long pointed to the Catholic nature of the annual event as justification for LGBTQ+ exclusion.

“Frankly, there was a desire for the controversy to die down,” Patterson said, repeatedly saying the group did not want to dwell on the decisions of past leaders.

The move also comes after an advocacy project launched in 2022 by Advance/SILive.com highlighted the parade organizers’ exclusion of LGBTQ+ people with a series of stories that examined the large number of city resources used to support the event, as well as the overwhelming support . from the Staten Island Pride Center community.

How did we get here?

For at least the first 55 years of the island’s traditional St. Patrick’s Parade, crowds of residents from all corners of the area flocked to the Forest Avenue strip hours before the parade began to create a sea of ​​greenery while they waited anxiously. hundreds of marchers, ranging from a wide range of high school marching bands and Miss Staten Island, to every elected official on Staten Island, including the mayor of New York City.

But over the past four years, the number of organizations participating in the parade has declined. In fact, many groups and individuals have boycotted the annual event due to the continued exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups by the parade committee.

In 2023, organizers of the annual Jerome H. O’Donovan Parade Breakfast, where local politicians gather before the parade, canceled the 25-year-old tradition due to the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee’s long-standing refusal to allow members of the LGBTQ+ community to march openly in the parade. That same year, a group of people who supported inclusion staged a short, peaceful protest before the parade began, displaying a large pride banner in the middle of Forest Avenue in front of Jody’s Club Forest.

Despite this, the parade committee, under its previous leadership, has once again banned LGBTQ+ groups from participating in the 2024 event.

Frustrated by the parade committee’s exclusionary practices, the Forest Avenue Business Improvement District organized the area’s first inclusive parade this year, which took place on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

The inclusive parade featured a variety of marchers—from politicians and celebrities to high school marching bands—who have boycotted the annual parade in recent years due to the exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups. Instead, the annual political breakfast was held the morning before the inclusive parade.